Celtic award nominee in 'best possible way' Brendan Rodgers exit claim

Rodgers is now the club’s most successful living manager after the Parkhead side clinched the Premiership title on Saturday with a 5-0 win at Dundee United. Afterwards he made it very clear that he would still be around next season as Celtic aim to make it five-in-a-row.

However, with his contract set to expire next summer, Rodgers' long-term future remains unclear and threatens to cloud the first few months of next season. The manner of his exit, whenever it happens, will need to be adroitly negotiated following the ill-feeling generated the last time he left the east end of Glasgow six years ago.

The Northern Irishman abruptly left after three-and-a-half years to join Leicester City in February 2019. McGregor hopes such ructions can be avoided the next time Rodgers and Celtic part ways although he is desperate for the manager to extend his stay.

“If we can keep him for as long as we can, then we have an elite level manager, no doubt,” the skipper said. “Obviously that's between him and the club. And what I would say on that is we want to keep him for as long as we can. He was hugely successful in his first spell. He's come back, he's done the same again. The hunger's there.

“Since he's come in, he's elevated the club to a new level," he added. "You just look at the domestic success that's happened since then and it's been relentless, really.”

McGregor was speaking after being included among the nominees for PFA Scotland Player of the Year. The midfielder was named alongside teammates Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda while Dundee’s Simon Murray, who has scored 22 goals this season, completed the quartet, with the winner announced at a dinner on Sunday night.

McGregor stressed that he wants Rodgers to stick around as long as possible. “He cares so much about the players,” he said. “He cares so much about his profession as well. So when I see someone like that, I think, that's gold dust. I want to watch everything he's doing, and hopefully some of that is rubbing off as well.”

On being given sufficient notice of any impending exit, McGregor said he hoped this would be the case if it had to happen.

“I guess so, because then the club will have to plan for that,” he said. “But he's the type of man that, if that is ever going to happen, I think he would let the club know and want to leave the club in the best possible way. Because that's the type of guy he is as well.”

Nobody, including Rodgers himself, would claim he left “in the best possible way” last time around. McGregor believes that this is all water firmly under the bridge now. “Ultimately, people will always respect what he's done,” he said. “Even the first time I get it, people weren't happy, but he still set a new level for Celtic.

“He then came back and he raised the bar again from where we left. So I think in the end, when all the emotion dies down, people will think, ‘Wow, he was one of the best managers ever that managed at Celtic’.”